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BRUSSELS, March 23 (Reuters) - Belgian business confidence, a bellwether for the 16-country euro zone, beat market expectations by rising in March to its highest point since August 2008, central bank data showed on Tuesday.
The business confidence index, often referred to as the leading indicator, rose to -3.6 from February's -7.0, the National Bank of Belgium said.
A Reuters poll of 13 economists had produced a median forecast of no change, with a range from -8.5 to -6.5.
"It shows that the euro zone recovery will again gather speed and pace in the coming months," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.
"The slowdown that we had towards the end of last year and early this year was more inventory- and snow-driven and we now see that the recovery continues," he said.
The business services component showed the most significant rise, increasing 7.4 points to 14.1, followed by the construction indicator, which improved by 5 points to -9.3.
The Belgian data comes a day before the closely watched German Ifo business climate index. The German number is forecast to improve slightly this month after a surprise fall in February, partly due to the harsh winter. (Reporting by Ben Deighton and Bate Felix, editing by Dale Hudson)